Imagination Technologies announces new high-end graphics core

More than good enough

Less than a month after ARM unveiled its plans for embedded graphics domination, the incumbent it's trying to usurp - Imagination Technologies - has issued its riposte.

It must be noted that Imagination was quick to downplay the threat posed by ARM's graphics, and maybe one of the reasons was that it knew it had an imminent launch of its own. That has taken the form of the PowerVR SGX554 MP, the latest member of its Series5XT family.

"SGX554 pushes the upper boundaries of performance in power and cost-constrained embedded environments, while building on our unrivalled portfolio of APIs across every significant embedded and desktop operating system. What's more we have been shipping DX9 level parts for more than three years, in millions of units, so SGX554 will benefit from the maturity of our DX9 drivers."

Perhaps also in the name of getting one back at ARM, Imagination announced Android support for its own META-based SoC application platforms, and demonstrated an SoC - in partnership with Renesas, running Series5XT graphics.

"Users will not settle for ‘just good enough' graphics - they are actively choosing products that deliver the very best in UI, media, gaming and navigation," said Imagination CEO Hossein Yassaie. "This new processor from Renesas will deliver the capabilities to drive mobile and embedded graphics devices to power the next level of graphics-rich user experiences."